'Women aged 60 and above at most risk from chain-snatching'

Aug 12, 2014, 02:50 IST
|
Salil Urunkar

Announcing the arrest of an inter-state gang of chain-snatchers, the Pune Crime Branch revealed startling crime patterns they found during investigations

While announcing the arrest of suspected members of an inter-state chain-snatching gang on Monday, the Pune Crime Branch also said their investigations had revealed several patterns in the chain-snatching incidents in the city.

Most particularly, the police revealed that of the 397 incidents that have occurred in Pune since January, 133 targeted women who were aged 60 years or more.

A whopping 33 per cent of the incidents had taken place during evenings, between 5 and 9 pm, they said, adding that more cases were witnessed on Sundays than on any other day.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Jayant Naiknavare said, “Most of the chain snatchings have taken place on Sundays, in the 5 to 9 pm slot, in which women above 60 years of age are being targeted.”

Crime Branch officials said they had recovered 1.173 kg of gold from the nabbed suspects, as well as cash and goods worth Rs 35 lakh.

The arrested suspects were identified as Mohammed Sayyed Noor Irani (20) and Imran Firoz Irani (24), both residents of Loni Kalbhor. The gang’s jeweller, Nirmal Singh Rajpurohit, was also arrested and has been handed over to the Khadki police station for further investigation.

Two remaining accomplices, Mohammed alias Mammu Ali Irani and Ali Akram Irani are still absconding. The gang members have confessed to their involvement in 56 cases of chain-snatching in areas across the city, such as Yerawada, Bhosari-MIDC, Chinchwad, and Khadki.

“The gang members were also active in Mumbai, Satara and other places. Our investigation has revealed that they have also committed chain-snatchings in other states like Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh,” said Police Inspector Sunil Pawar, the in-charge of Unit III, Crime Branch.